Amity
by Serena Bancroft
Summary: Rose and Dimitri have some time to themselves after Dimitri returns from California. Oneshot companion piece to 'Home'.


**Title:** Amity**  
Author:** Serena

**Summary:** Rose and Dimitri have some time to themselves after Dimitri returns from California. Oneshot companion piece to 'Home'.**  
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**AN1:** I thought I was done with these two, but the lack of quality Rose and Dimitri fics on here has been driving me nuts. Too many people writing 'u' instead of 'you' if you know what I mean. Anyway, read and enjoy.

**AN2:** This piece is un-beta'd so if you spot any errors, let me know.

**AN3:** This takes place directly after 'Home'. Could probably be read on it's own but obviously was written as a companion.

"Get your ass in that bed or I'm going to have to hurt you."

Dimitri laughed at her eagerness. "Maybe I can put my clothes away before you jump my bones?"

They'd both managed to get their guardian duties cleared for the rest of the day and tomorrow, and Rose wasn't planning on spending any of those hours letting him put his stuff away. She was pretty certain she was simply going to ravish every bit of his skin she could get her lips on for the next 36 hours. "Nah," she said dismissively, and pulled him towards her while stepping him backwards towards the luxurious bed in her Palace quarters.

He could only smirk at the love of his life as she tumbled down on top of him when his knees collided with the edge of the mattress. He had much to tell her, much that he knew she wanted to know. Especially about Adrian. Her guilt regarding the royal Moroi who'd once been very much in love with her, although the devotion was one-way, plagued her often.

Contrary to the opinion that she was coarse, rash, and could be a bit of a bitch when she wanted to be, his Roza was a very caring person, fiercely loyal, and would whole-heartedly give herself to a cause she believed in. She did truly care for Adrian, but as she'd told him that night in the hotel room _I was made for you._

He wanted to tell her about all that had happened, but her hands that were gliding under his shirt begged him to think otherwise. she began to move in to kiss him, and then he knew he'd be a goner.

Utilizing his obvious advantage of greater height and weight, he rolled them over so that she was pinned beneath him. His grin was smugly victorious. "Gotcha."

Rose grumbled. He knew she would never acknowledge her 'defeat', so he rolled off her her and settled properly on the bed with his expansive back against the headboard. The loss of contact made him feel cold, but not for long since his Roza crawled her way back up to him, settling into his side as he wrapped an arm around her. They fit together perfectly, he marveled once again. He could never tire of _her_.

The silence was comfortable for a long while until Rose finally spoke. "I've gotta ask... how's Adrian?" On the car ride home, they hadn't had much time to discuss anything. Since Sonya (and by extension, Mikhail) had ridden with them, talk had mostly consisted of the experiments. Rose decided to wait to inquire about her favorite Alchemist when she and Dimitri were in private (especially when she heard Sydney had actually given them a _blood sample_... maybe she was becoming less wary of the 'creatures of the night'), but as per usual, curiosity of Adrian won out.

She knew it was too much to hope that she'd been forgiven. It was much too soon, and Adrian had been far too angry to just let it all go. Especially with the awful way things had ended between them.

"He's better, I think. As sarcastic as ever. By the time I left he'd stopped glaring daggers at me whenever he thought I wasn't looking."

Rose closed her eyes, trying to even her breathing. "This is my fault."

Dimitri cupped her cheek and turned her to look at him. "Roza, look at me." Reluctantly, those beautiful dark pools were revealed to him. "I know you feel guilty about the way things ended with Adrian, but you cannot feel guilty about seeking your own happiness."

The hint of a smile tugged at the corners of Rose's mouth, her melancholy fading fast. "Ah, there's the Zen wisdom I know and love." She kissed his palm gently before using her own hand to lower his from her face. She didn't let go. "So you'd have the same advice if I loved Adrian and not you?"

He didn't like that scenario, and Rose could tell, even though he automatically schooled his features to not betray such inner thoughts. "Yes. Though I would not enjoy it." He thought a moment, before amending, "I suppose if you were happy I could live with it."

She loved it when he got all romantic. "You're adorable."

Dimitri could only laugh at that. "I can recall several occasions on which you have called me anything but adorable," he murmured in her ear, voice all husky and masculine, and Rose wanted to jump him again. He pulled away before she could act, his voice returning to its normal volume, "But, we agreed to talk."

The pout on his Roza's face was precious. "Talking's overrated."

"Despite your fabulous tendency to bring us off track, I know you want to know about Adrian."

She sighed, cursing his uncanny ability to see straight through her. She didn't say anything, so Dimitri continued unprompted. "Sydney's great with him. She's got him out doing productive things. He was apparently taking art classes."

_That_ did not sound like the Adrian she'd known. "Really?"

Dimitri nodded. "He's actually pretty good at it. I saw one or two of his paintings and they were quite stunning."

"Jesus. He sounds like a completely different person."

Dimitri nodded. "I'm not sure if it's the bond to Jill that's making him so responsible or what, but whatever he's doing, it's doing him some good." He pauses and then, almost an afterthought, "I think he's at least half-way in love with Sydney."

At that moment, Rose was sure if she'd been drinking anything, there would have been an absolutely epic spit-take following Dimitri's statement. "_What?_"

Dimitri chuckles at her not entirely unexpected reaction. "He's different around her," he says, his voice now soft, "protective. But when you get down to it, he's absolute putty in her hands and she doesn't even know it... he quit smoking for a week because she half-heartedly joked that he wouldn't be able to do it for a day."

Rose's mouth was hanging open comically the entire time Dimitri spoke of Adrian and Sydney. She thought of their personalities, and suddenly realized how freaking _perfect_ they would be together. Adrian had enough wild in him to get Sydney to loosen up, and Sydney was grounded enough to get Adrian's head out of the clouds. They balanced. And just when she was getting enthusiastic about the pair, her mind provided a fundamental flaw with her assessment- she is a human, and he is a Moroi.

Despite her (mercifully) short stay among the Keepers, human-vampire relationships were just plain taboo. And made her more than slightly uncomfortable. The thought of the two species intermixing sometimes made her a little sick; she doubted the mindset was more than just a steady stream of influence as she grew up. _Moroi and dhampir are separate from humans_ had been pounded into her almost as much as _They come first._

The quagmire of conflicting ideals her mind was caught in was interrupted by Dimitri saying, "And get this, he even bought some classic car just because Sydney would like it. And, he pretended that he didn't know how to drive a stick shift just so she would teach him. Oldest trick in the book. And he knew she wouldn't refuse because she cared too much about the car to leave it in his supposedly novice grasp."

That disrupted the mental imbroglio going on in her head and she laughed. That sounded like Adrian. And trust Sydney to put the welfare of a car over her own. "Oh, god." They really were perfect for each other in every way but one.

"I know." Dimitri understood what she meant. Perfectly.

"If they actually started... something... oh, man, he took so much crap for dating _me_."

"I imagine it wouldn't be very pleasant, publicly, anyway."

"That's an understatement. The shit would hit the fan, is what would happen," Rose said, but his last two words gave her pause. "Publicly?"

Dimitri sighed. "If they were both... _the same_, I suppose, things would be easier. But quite honestly, if I didn't know them I would say they were in a relationship already. They sure act like it, bickering like an old married couple."

"Understood. I love 'em both, but a human and a Moroi? No offense to anyone, but that gives me the creeps a little bit." She refused to hold back her opinion. She knew Dimitri would never judge her.

Dimitri had been raised with a bit more of a liberal view towards Moroi and dhampir relationships, but as far as she knew, his stance on humans and Moroi was the same as hers. At least somewhat similar, since she knew his hometown of Baia was home to many humans as well. He nodded in understanding. "I can agree with you. But love finds a way, right?"

Rose smiled, a full smile that lit her features beautifully, and Dimitri's breath caught in his throat briefly gazing upon her. "Right." There was a lull in the conversation until Rose said, "So, vampire hunters, huh?"

Dimitri's chest rumbled with a contemplative noise he sometimes made when a dilemma arose. "A group of marginal humans who split off from the Alchemist thousands of years ago. They're pretty gung-ho about killing off all species not explicitly human."

"Yikes. Even Moroi? I could see the drive to kill the Strigoi, but Moroi have always been peaceful." Ramifications of this giant hunting party shivered through her.

Dimitri nodded, "That was our argument. We first thought they were only after Strigoi, but Sydney found out when she went in after Sonya that they may have grand plans for taking down the Moroi and dhampirs as well."

"Oh yeah, I heard about Sydney going all John McClane and infiltrating their compound."

"John McClane?"

Rose looked up at his face, "C'mon, Comrade, ever seen _Die Hard_? One, two, three, four, or five?"

The blank look remained.

She could only snort, "Russians and their lack of action films. Outrageous."

Dimitri could only chuckle at the disgruntled look on her face.

"We are watching it. I don't care when, but we are. No person who lives in America can't _not _watch _Die Hard._ It's an unwritten rule that should be made into a Constitutional Amendment."

"You seem serious about this film, Roza."

She scoffed, but managed to look utterly serious as she said, "That's the thing, I'm actually not really, but _come on_, Dimiti. Literally everyone has seen it."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Except for myself, obviously."

"That's sad."

"Not really."

"You're difficult."

"So are you."

She was about to reply, but he leaned in and kissed her instead of bickering. She accepted the alternative distraction easily, leaning into him. After a few moments, she coyly attempted to straddle him and end their conversation completely. Alas, his hands caught her traitorous hips and held her firmly in place as he broke the kiss.

"I really don't understand why you keep stopping. It's gonna happen." She wasn't seriously angry. Just in a bit of a bother since she hadn't had her boyfriend in her bed in weeks, and she was sick of waiting. Rosemarie Hathaway was many things, and patient was certainly not one of them.

Dimitri smiled cheekily, "I just like making you wait. you're adorable when you're impatient."

She smirks, tossing his words back at him, "And I can also recall several occasions on which you've called me anything but adorable. I think 'sex goddess' tops the list."

"When have I ever called you that?"

Rose tapped her temple with her pointer finger. "In your mind. A woman can tell, and it's wise to not question it."

The guise of levity shed itself as Dimitri's earlier words began to sink in. "We've got a total clusterfuck coming at us, don't we?"

Dimitri ignored the crass language, "Probably. The vampire hunters don't seem like much of a threat now, but in several years, you never know." Their temporary arena hadn't been incredibly impressive, but the quickness of their building, the masses they controlled, spoke of an increasingly dangerous group.

"And you can't really trust the Alchemists to always stay on our side," Rose realized with worry. She feared Sydney would be either caught in a crossfire between her species and her friends, or, God forbid, she chooses the Alchemists and faces the vampires down like she never even knew them. Rose didn't frighten often, but that possibility was one that truly, utterly, terrified her.

"Exactly. They don't trust us as it is. We can't really tell where their loyalties will lie if something changes."

"This is why I'm glad I'm a guardian. We just have to fight. Don't really have to deal with the 'why's." Rose scrubbed a hand over her face. "Lissa's gonna have a lot of hell coming her way in her term."

Dimitri hugged her closer. Despite their severed Spirit-enabled bond, Rose and Lissa were still closer than most best friends, and he knew how much their young Queen's welfare weighed on Rose's mind. "She's strong, Roza. She's smart, she's capable, and she has many strong supporters. If anyone could wade their way through this mess, it's her."

Rose knew he was right. "But I still worry."

"Don't we all," he replied with a fond smile.

"Speaking of worrying and much lighter-hearted topics, your Mom called earlier."

And _finally _some good news. "Really?"

Rose nodded happily. "She wants to know when we're going to come visit again. I told her we'd let her know. Lissa's trying to pull some strings so we can get a week off at Christmastime. I was hoping we could go then."

"That sounds wonderful to me,' Dimitri said eagerly. He missed his family, and the few days he and Rose had spent in Baia a few weeks after she was declared innocent hadn't been enough time. He would be lying if he said it hadn't hurt to see how big his niece and nephew had gotten, especially little Paul. (_"He's looks just like Dimka at that age," his sisters had teased lightly._) "What about your parents? Don't they want to see you?"

Rose sighed. Her relationship with her mother was better than it had been a few years ago, and she finally knew who her father was, so it was safe to say the relationship was improving, but she still wasn't completely thrilled about spending time with the estranged couple. Admittedly, Dimitri wanted to keep his distance from Abe. Now that he knew that _zmey_ was Rose's father, he tried to think of him differently, but he grew up thinking Abe Mazur was a mobster. A hard reputation to shake. "My mother has guardian duties over Christmas. Abe is probably off doing something illegal. I would honestly rather spend it with your family."

He was thrilled that she loved his family, but he mourned the look of an abandoned girl when she spoke of her parents. Even though she refused to voice it, he knew that she wanted a better relationship with her mother and father. He wished fervently that Rose had had a better childhood, like his, but knew that it wasn't possible, and who she was was shaped by her upbringing. And if having a loving family would change her... Dimitri wouldn't love her the same way. "I'm glad, Roza. They absolutely love you. Even my grandmother, and her respect is not something easily won," he said with a chuckle.

He heard Rose grumble something under her breath about 'the goddamn garden bricks'. "I love them too." She paused. "So it's settled, then. Christmas at the Belikovs'." And then, before he could stop her, Rose straddles Dimitri, her thighs pinning his to the mattress. She leaned forward, and whispered, all raspy and seductive, "I think I've been patient enough."

"Far be it for me to deny you anything," he replies, his hands moving from the innocent position on her back to brazenly wander the body that had _far too much clothing_ on it.

"I like that answer, Dim-" a sharp gasp bubbles out of her, followed by a laugh as Dimitri (unfairly, she often complains) flips them over effortlessly pins her down beneath him.

He only smiles down on her, and as their lips begin to move in synchronicity, Dimitri feels that heavily sought-after peace envelope him. He was relived to be at peace and at home with his Roza. Only the sounds of hushed _God, I missed you_ and _I love you so much_ and gasps of exquisite pleasure and rustling clothes hitting the ground fill the air.

And that wonderful smile that adorns her face makes any and all distress disappear. The darkness in both of their souls retreat in the loving radiance of the kindred spirit.

Only light and love have a place here.

_The End._

****PLEASE READ** I'm considering writing a 'Going back to Baia' story set after Last Sacrifice since I have yet to find one that I like. And when that happens, I usually resort to writing one myself. Let me know if you'd be interested in reading it if I write it. It would probably be multi-chapter, and might not be up for a while since I'm busy playing in other fandoms. If no one's going to read it, it's going to be pointless writing it. (As you can see, I briefly mentioned it in this story, so the ideas are jiggling around in there somewhere.)  
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**Anyhoo, reviews are an author's payment on this site. Hinty hint hint.**


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